Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

Crap weather + crap promotion + playing a unfashionable team + Christmas in the park or whatever it was

Crowds always dip before Christmas, even if they played it in Wellington it would have been below average. Ideally Im sure they would have liked to play in Auckland in Jan/Feb but that is impossible this time around.

The crowd was poor. Lots of excuses can be used but it was still poor. However I don't think it's an Auckland problem, a Wellington problem or even a football problem. It's a NZ problem - people, apart from diehard fans, are averse to going to games. The ABs even struggle to sell out, which is incredible given how much they are rammed down our throats :).

Again there's reasons for people not attending which I think someone could complete a thesis on, not least poor facilities, lack of viable transport options and the total cost for the day.

I think yesterday was down to weather and a wide variety of alternatives. And in my case, a work do. Which I managed to get through without hearing the score so I could watch it when I got home. That is until just as I was leaving.  Then some came up to me and just said the score... nothing else. Just the score.... fufufufuuuuuuudge

David Chote was great on the radio this morning about it. Lets remember, there is well over a million people up there and not all would have been at the Christmas in the park or Raggamuffin. Really, Aucklands die hard football fans could have done better. The weather wasn't that bad. The occassional light drizzle was actually warm not cold like our southerly. it was nice to not have gotten scorched facing the sun. Shame our singing was wasted on open air but this happens.

So Dave, are you going to hold true to your threats and stop taking the circus to town and concentrate on building the fan base here in Wellington without threats of moving us elsewhere? I hope so.

Fixed the spelling.

No excuses, 11000 is woeful.

That's pretty Shark of you to blame die hard football fans for not coming, they would have been part of the 11k that was there, just bear that in mind when blaming people for not turning up.

An extra game in Wgtn strengthens the case for a smaller purpose-built stadium in the Hutt...

I don't think total cost is that much of a factor. What do people think our average crowds would be if every game was free? I think it is more just that people don't want to see live sport anymore.

Still, rather disappointing given that there was a novelty shirt involved.

I think there needs to be a greater point of difference, and with live sport that is the game day experience, community and atmosphere. 

Hard to accomplish in the bigger stadiums we have in NZ (that are basically built to big for the all blacks). 

Very interested to see how these Hutt rec games go. I know I'm like a broken record on it, but the potential is there for it to be really fun, take off, and maybe even become a regular thing. You can really deliver those points of difference a lot easier at the Hutt rec than at westpac stadium. 

And yet the big blue gets 25k.  What is different over the deetch?  And no, Midfielder, I don't need a thesis.  Just bullet points from the Exec Summary will do.

it's a game that is hyped up to matter (grrrrivals etc) 

Much Bigger population to draw from

A lot of away fans travel to see those types of games that 'matter'. Probably puts the crowd over 20k 

That particular fixture has had some awesome games in past seasons 

Just to illustrate that, Sydney's highest attendance was 40k vs WSW. Rival game, plenty of travelling fans effectively doubling the crowd. 

Their lowest was 11k vs Perth. That is only 3000 more than our average (that doesn't have those types of games - at least not until the end of the season if we are doing well) with a population that is much bigger than ours.

So quite similar to the game up in Orcland then (serious).

hype, population, wgtn travelling fans, plus maybe some from the tron etc.

I think this game was missing hype. Ideally you would play the Auckland game toward the end of the season to potentially cash in on any success. 

But aside from that, yes you have a point that the Auckland crowd was disappointing considering those factors plus the fact it is a one off game which brings novelty factor. Though I guess the novelty factor was decreased very slightly from usual as we did play west ham there during the preseason. 

Hope we are not going to get too angst you over the crowd which was the largest so far this season. Would hope that and the hobbit deal worked for the coffers. We Aucklanders don't go on when the crowd is only 4 k in Wellington.

Yeah but Wgtnians do.

And you know that when we get those 4k crowds how sh!t we are on the field.

What do the Orclanders think?

Publicity certainly began early and there was plenty of email promo about it. Seemed also like the Nix did a lot of promo in the week before the game

I don't think early advertising creates hype. Just mental availability - "we are playing in Auckland, come and watch the game"

Hype is more through the media, though you can incorporate it into advertisements - "come and see the nix destroy rivals Auckland City for bragging rights" "come and watch the phoenix in this must win game to secure a home playoff/win the toilet seat"

I don't think you can artificially create that with a game against lowly CCM, in the middle of the season. They could have played on the McGlinchey thing a bit I guess - I know CCM did when we played over there. 

But I do agree with you, the crowd was disappointing. 

I agree a lot with Tegal. One of the big problems is that no one in New Zealand really cares about the A-League. The Big Blue was fantastic last night but how many people over here even bothered to watch? Most New potential Phoenix fans could probably name all of 5 non Phoenix players. 

Central Coast and Melbourne City would both have almost identical crowds to us if it wasn't for their derby games.

There were bus posters aplenty, but I didn't see the billboards of previous years.

Saying that, I really don't get what the angst is about with the crowd numbers. Unless it's anger that Aucklanders get to see the Phoenix at all and a wish to deprive us of that, in which case fudge you with a shark cod.

Mightve helped having a Melbourne Victory or Sydney there this time. Raggamuffin and Xmas in the Park wouldnt have helped. 11,000 is still ok - the stupidly huge stadium doesnt help none

Plenty to hype up about the game - and the fact that many here thought we would walk in 3-4 goals suggests that the hype machine was going.  

Quite possibly.

Soft northern shi!tes.

You know, this JAFA-bashing is getting close to being as off-putting as the ACFC Knitting Circle.

Its a while since I've checked in on this thread, so apologies if it's been done to death before. One of the key differences the Nix are missing out on is the context of football's growth, especially in Oz main media market, ie Sydney. We don't get the A league media coverage here that is giving league and aussie rules the collywobbles. So we can't ride that wave of growth that is driven mainly out of Sydney/ WSW phenomenon. NZ media may pick up on it more if it starts impacting rugby union. Only short-medium term answers I can think of are being seriously competitors for the title or 2nd A league franchise.

I don't really see how calling a disappointing crowd disappointing is JAFA bashing. 

As an Aucklander who has been to every Phoenix game in Auckland, here's my two cents:

· The threats that the owners are making are getting tiresome, and felt like it was more a chore to go than not this time round. It really seems to take the excitement away from the game (and since they have now made this threat for every stadium in the country, where will they take them now?)

· The weather had the appearance of being horrible which could have turned people off (despite it being quite pleasant for the game)

· Eden Park is just a horrible stadium with no atmosphere and no decent seats.

· When added up, ticket prices + processing fees (if buying online) + food prices is just too overpriced for a family.

· You can say Ragamuffin and Christmas in the park didn't have huge attendances but I went to CitP after the game (took around 45-60 minutes) and there was still a decent crowd there, with a huge amount leaving due to the weather. In other words, there would be many families and teens who would have chosen the free CitP over the hard to get to and overpriced Eden Park, even if they did end up leaving early. 

· I also didn't see a single poster or advertisement for the game anywhere in Auckland nor did I hear anything on the news, except in articles and on here that were about other Phoenix things (such as players and results etc) so nothing specifically about them being at Eden Park.

· Performances at Eden Park have been mixed and apart from the West Ham game, the Phoenix have never been overly exciting in Auckland, last night's game included. It is one thing to play well and dominate, but to casual fans, they want to see goals for the home team and lots of them; not spurned chances, goalkeeping errors, and draws. Sure, the team's been playing well the last few games but they just aren't consistent. You just can't rely on them to win games when everything is working in their favour.

Despite all this, I was very surprised with the crowd figure and expected it to be around 15k considering the other events on, not as low as 11k.

One last point; is there any reason why Mt. Smart Stadium isn't an option? That is far superior to Eden Park and North Harbour and is much more accessible. I don't know any Aucklanders who actually like Eden Park, at least not more so than the other stadiums.

I agree with your first point (actually probably all them).

The messaging around this has been the same for the last few years and is not helpful leading up to the game.

Now that it is post-game it is a very valid issue to follow up.  I don't think that the other events in the city can dictate when the game is played:  The scheduling was quite naff this year with the CWC and AC.   

I think Welnix will need to look at the viability of these games if they have nailed their bottom line of 13k to the mast so to speak.

Jaysus , soon there'll be 2 teams D is a huge fan of , whose games she doesnt attend !

Wasn't referring to that, but to the "Dorkland" and "suckland" rubbish. The crowd was low, but I expected it to be low because of all the factors mentioned, so I wasn't personally disappointed.

So "soft northern sh!tes" is inappropriate?

Next time your in Auckland , your more than welcome to try that address ...Please do...

Why would I go to "that Auckland?"

Only show when the sun's out.

I do not think the absolute numbers matter. The per-capita relative numbers for each city do.

Yes, his argument is invalid, doesn't get better by repeating it.

So weather was shark but people go to the christmas in the park and ragamuffin fest? There is a lack of interest. I'm not blaming Auckland for not interested. In the last years those games brought in some cash for the Nix, this year not. Management has to decide, I would loved to watch the game here in Wellington, live, instead on TV.